Cookery means the knowledge of Medea and of Circe and of Helen and of the Queen of Sheba. It means much testing and no wasting; it means English thoroughness and French art and Arabian hospitality; and, in fine, it means that you are to be perfectly and always ladiesloaf givers.

Ruskin

The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book

Fannie Farmer

This classic American cooking reference includes 1,849 recipes, including everything from after-dinner coffeewhich Farmer notes is beneficial for a stomach overtaxed by a hearty mealto Zigaras à la Russe, an elegant puff-pastry dish. Bartleby.com chose the 1918 edition because it was the last edition of the cookbook authored completely by Farmer.